


Donna Noble Investigates

by cosmic_llin



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-29
Updated: 2008-05-29
Packaged: 2017-10-07 22:42:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here Donna was, trying her best to find the Doctor, and all she kept getting was this irritating reporter woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Donna Noble Investigates

**Author's Note:**

> Contains spoilers for, and is set immediately before the events of, Partners in Crime.

Donna was starting to get pretty fed up with this. She went to the Beekeepers' Association – she was there. That company that was supposed to be putting hallucinogens in bottled water – she was there again. International Bee Research Association – she was still there. Parliament, that abandoned church in Finchley, the Natural History Museum the day those dinosaur bones started acting all weird. Bloody Sarah Jane Smith was there every time. Donna couldn't seem to shake her off. And, more often than not, the woman was being ushered into wherever it was, wearing a smug, journalistic smile, while Donna was being politely – or not-so-politely – refused entrance.

Quite often, the very next day, that stupid Metropolitan Magazine would have another exclusive. Once, Donna actually grabbed it off the news stand, threw it on the floor and jumped up and down on it. The newspaper man had been quite offended. Donna had gone back the next day to apologise and share her Aero with him. After that, he kept an eye out, and warned her when Sarah Jane Smith did a new story.

Donna had looked her up on the internet. There wasn't very much. She'd found a couple of cryptic mentions on one of the alien abduction forums she'd started to frequent, but mostly it was just lists of all the wonderful exclusives she'd had, and wasn't she a brilliant journalist, and blah blah blah. Here Donna was, trying her best to find the Doctor, and all she kept getting was this irritating reporter woman.

It all came to a head with the Adipose business. Donna was pretty fired up about it – she was convinced that something was going on there. And she hadn't even been tipped off by one of those internet weirdos, she'd worked it out all by herself. This was her very own case. She'd put on her suit that morning and she had all of her incisive questions ready. She'd written a list and put it in her official-looking red folder, but she didn't need it, she could see the whole scene in her head. She even had a plan to get inside.

So it was particularly irritating to get to the bottom of the steps of the Adipose building, only to see sodding Sarah Jane Smith approaching from the other direction. Donna stared, aghast, unable to help herself.

Sarah Jane Smith stopped, and frowned at Donna.

'I'm sorry… do I know you?' she asked. 'It's just… you look a bit familiar.'

Donna stared. 'Familiar? Familiar?! I should think I look bloody familiar, you've only been following me for months!'

'I beg your pardon?'

'You've been following me!' Donna repeated, then faltered at Sarah Jane Smith's quizzical expression. 'Well… all right, you haven't been following me… I mean… you probably haven't… I'm pretty sure you haven't… but every time I turn up to investigate something, you're always there first, and I'm getting pretty… well…'

Donna decided to stop talking before she could feel any stupider. The woman was just looking at her. She looked so calm and collected. It really wasn't fair.

'So, just to be sure I understand you,' Sarah Jane Smith said, after a long and uncomfortable pause, 'you and I have been investigating the same cases, but I always get there before you.'

Donna nodded.

Sarah Jane Smith shrugged. 'Journalism's a tough game,' she said.

'I'm not a journalist!' Donna protested.

'You're not? Who are you, then?'

Donna stuck out her hand. 'Donna Noble.' She paused. 'Paranormal Investigator.' She wasn't sure about that last bit really – she'd been using it in her head but she hadn't intended to actually say it to anyone out loud – but it sounded perhaps marginally more impressive than "Donna Noble – Internet Conspiracy Theorist On The Dole."

Sarah Jane Smith took the hand and shook it. It looked to Donna like she was trying not to laugh. Bloody cheek.

'Sarah Jane Smith,' she said.

'And don't I know it,' said Donna.

'Look…' said the woman. 'You're obviously a bit upset about this. Come on, let's go and have a coffee and a sit down, and we can have a proper chat and sort all of this out. All right?' She smiled sweetly.

It wasn't fair, thought Donna, that she had been hating Sarah Jane Smith for so long, and now the woman was ruining everything by acting perfectly reasonable and nice! A good showdown would have been so much more satisfying for Donna's wounded pride. But that was a bit petty, so she just nodded and followed her to the coffee shop down the street.

Ten minutes later, somehow, Donna was sitting in front of a hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, pouring out her heart to the woman she'd been hating from afar for all this time. Of course, she couldn't tell her the bit about the Doctor, but she'd sort of worked around it, and she thought Sarah was getting the idea.

'Do you see what I mean, though?' Donna asked at last. 'I just… know that there's more I can be doing, there's more out there! And I want to find out and I want to see things and do things, and sometimes I feel like I'll never… I mean, I've moved back home with my mum… and I don't have a job… I just want to do something real, something important…'

'It's all right,' Sarah said, reaching across the table to pat her hand. 'I understand, Donna, honestly I do. But do you really think that…' she paused, biting her lip, then continued, 'ahem… _paranormal investigation_ is the way to go?'

'Why not? That's what you do, isn't it?' Donna asked.

'Well… it's not exactly the same thing…' Sarah said.

'Oh, come off it, how come we both keep ending up at the same place?' Donna said. 'Don't try to put me off. I'm going to keep looking. I know there are things going on that we're not told about.'

Sarah opened her mouth to reply.

'And don't give me any of that stuff about mysterious gas leaks and mass hallucinations,' Donna continued. 'Because I don't believe it, all right? I _know_.'

Sarah looked intently at her for a moment, and then nodded.

'All right,' she said. 'Tell you what – I'll give you this one. You investigate Adipose, I'll go home and… I don't know, do a bit of gardening or something. See how you get on.'

'Really?' Donna asked. 'You don't mind?'

'No, plenty of other things to do,' Sarah said. 'You seem to have a handle on this one. Just don't come crying to me if you get snatched by aliens and dragged off to the Planet of the Hats, or wherever.'

'Oh! I won't!' Donna grinned. 'That would be… amazing!' She frowned. 'That's not real, is it, Planet of the Hats?'

'Who's to say?' Sarah said, solemnly. She drank the last of her coffee and stood up. 'It was nice to meet you, Donna Noble, Paranormal Investigator.'

'You too, Sarah Jane Smith,' said Donna. 'And… thanks. See you around?'

'See you around,' Sarah agreed, and with a little wave, she was gone.

Donna smiled. Could that have gone any better? She suddenly felt very brave. Adipose, whatever they were up to, were no match for her. She finished her hot chocolate in one gulp, snatched up her official-looking red folder, and went to investigate.

  



End file.
